THE STARDUST FORTUNE

Chapter 20: Forbidden Confidants

Luna's apartment buzzed with tension as Rebecca paced the living room.

"You're meeting him again?" Rebecca crossed her arms. "After everything that happened?"

"He's helping me understand these changes," Luna gestured to her faintly luminescent skin. "Nobody else knows what this is like."

"What about me? I'm trying to understand, to help-"

"By checking my phone? By following me?"

Rebecca flushed. "I saw the texts, Luna. 'Missing you.' 'Wish you were here.' Those aren't just friendly messages."

"He's going through the same thing!"

"Is that why you dream about him?"

Luna froze. "What?"

"You talk in your sleep. 'Alex, help me. Alex, I need you.'" Rebecca's voice cracked. "Do you have any idea what it's like hearing your girlfriend call someone else's name?"

"Becca, it's not like that-"

"Then what is it like?"

Luna's phone buzzed. Alex's name flashed on the screen.

"Go," Rebecca said bitterly. "He's waiting."

"Becca-"

"Just go!"

Twenty minutes later, Luna sat across from Alex in their usua